Start by getting rid of everything you no longer wear. Place shirts, suits, and sweatshirts on hangers. Store t-shirts, socks, and underwear away in drawers. Use storage boxes or closet compartments for belts, and shoes are best placed on a shoe rack.
A neatly organized cupboard is a pleasure to look at and allows you to make most of the available space.
Apart from allowing you to find all the things you need easily and quickly and streamlining your morning routine, an organized closet helps keep your expensive clothes, shoes, and accessories in good shape.
So, if you’re wondering how to organize men’s closets, here are some useful tips to help you get sorted.
How to Organize A Man’s Closet
Organize Clothes by Category and Color
First, sort out your clothes and separate the tops from the bottoms and professional clothes from the casual ones.
For instance, hang your trousers first and then your jeans and business shirts together next to the casual shirts and t-shirts.
Leave some space between each of the clothes sections if possible so that you can easily differentiate between your casual and work clothes. Once you’ve organized your clothes by category, you can organize them by color.
Begin with the lighter shades and then move to the darker ones. This will make putting your outfit together and color coordinating them easy and quick.
Hang Your Clothes Properly
Use hangers to hang your clothes properly. This will help keep your closet orderly and take care of your clothes.
For formal shirt dresses, use hangers with plush arms or ones made of wood, as these will ensure that the shape of the shirts is retained properly. When hanging your shirt on the hanger, ensure that its top 2 buttons are fastened.
Use U-shaped hangers having rounded sides for your jackets, blazers, and suit coats, as this helps maintain the shape of the shoulders. Hang the trousers from their waistband on hangers having single or double clamps.
This will help air out your trousers while keeping them wrinkle-free. You can fold the trousers lengthwise and then over the hanger to keep them wrinkle-free.
If you want to boost your efficiency and make things more functional, you can hang your work shirts on the top rod in the closet, sort them by color, and hang your trousers on the bottom rod.
This will allow you to visualize which shirts go with which trousers and give you an overall idea of how your outfit will look before you pick them out for the day.
Keep Your T-Shirts and Casual Clothes in Drawers
Sort out your casual clothes such as t-shirts, loungewear, athleisure, etc. There’s no need to hang them. You can simply fold all of these and store them in drawers in your closet.
If you have lots of casual clothing, you could break them into smaller categories such as dry-fit t-shirts, shorts, etc.
Store Sweaters on Shelves
Fold all your sweaters neatly and stack them on your cupboard shelves. You may need a single shelf or many, depending on your sweater collection. Avoid hanging your sweaters on hangers as this can cause them to get stretched.
Folding them will help retain their shape, and you can also browse through your sweater stack easily and quickly when you want to wear one.
Organize Your Shoes Properly
Whether you own a few pairs of shoes or loads of them, organizing them is extremely important; otherwise, you’ll spend most of your time rummaging around for shoes to go with your outfit. Place your shoes into proper sections.
You can organize your footwear from casual, i.e., flip-flops, to formal shoes. Try to keep the shoes off the floor and preferably on a shelf.
You can store your tennis shoes, sports shoes, and boots on the bottom shelves, in a pull-out shoe rack, or on the floor of your closet. Unless your shoes are very expensive, avoid storing them in boxes.
Keeping your shoes lined up on the shelf will allow you to view them and match them to your outfits, making your choice quicker and easier.
Organize Your Accessories
You can use an accessory rack for your belts, either wall-mounted or door-mounted. Keeping your belts in a rack will keep them in better shape compared to simply stuffing them into a closet drawer.
Sort your ties and use tie storage accessories such as tie hangers to store them. You can hang the tie hanger in the hanging section of your closet. Alternatively, you can roll your ties up neatly and store them in a drawer.
You can sort your ties by color vs. pattern vs. solid to find the tie you want quickly. For accessories such as hats, etc., you can install hooks on the back of the closet door or the closet’s back wall and hang them.
Store your underwear and socks in drawers. If possible, keep a drawer only for your underwear and one for socks.
For smaller accessories such as wallets, watches, sunglasses, and cufflinks, instead of tossing them into your bedside table drawer, place them in a shallow drawer or in a small basket, which you can place on your shelf closet.
Separate All the Seasonal Clothing
When sorting your clothes, make a separate pile of all the clothes and other items that you don’t regularly use as they may be for a specific activity or a different season. Place these items higher up in your closet.
You could store all these items in a bin and place them on the top shelf of your cupboard, which you can access when you need them.
Get Rid of All the Clothes and Accessories You No Longer Use
If there is anything in your closet that you’ve not worn or used for a year, you probably won’t wear it again. So it’s a good idea to give it away. This will not only help declutter your closet but will also make space to add something new.
Some Important Closet Organization Tips
- Keep only the things you will wear or use in your closet. If you haven’t worn or used something for more than a year, get rid of it.
- Arranging all your belongings properly in your closet will allow you to see entire outfits at a glance and visualize the colors and patterns that will go best together. Avoid storing stuff in drawers and boxes.
- Keep all your clothing in sections in your closet and if necessary, use dividers for better sectioning.
- Store your shoes off the floor and arrange them by type, i.e., casual to formal. Keep dryer sheets in your footwear to prevent foot stink and other unpleasant odors pervading your closet.
FAQs on How to Organize Men’s Closets
What to do if there is not a lot of drawer space in my closet?
If there is not a lot of drawer space available in your closet, you can try placing shallow bins or baskets on the shelves that can work as makeshift drawers. Also, you can easily remove these makeshift drawers if needed.
I don’t have enough space to hang my clothes in the closet – what to do?
Hang a rod on the top of your closet, and then install the second rod below the longest item hanging from the top rod. This will probably be around halfway in your closet and will allow you to fit twice the number of items in the space.
